Man admits Troy stabbing

Updated 4:38 pm, Friday, July 15, 2011

TROY -- A Brooklyn man reluctantly took a plea Friday to serve 10 years in prison for stabbing a man.

Jason Varner, 28, was indicted in February on one count of second-degree attempted murder and one count of first-degree assault for the Aug. 21 attack at his former girlfriend's Jefferson Street apartment that seriously injured Keith Knox.

Varner appeared before Judge Robert Jacon and balked at the 10-year sentence offered by prosecutors for a plea to first-degree assault.

According to police statements, Varner went to his former girlfriend's house and asked to stay the night, but he was turned away. He came back and was allowed to stay. The next morning, a fight broke out between Varner and Keith Knox, the woman's new boyfriend, police said, adding that Varner stabbed Knox several times.

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''You know what the evidence is going to be against you; you were there,'' Jacon told Varner as he stood by his defense attorney Rob Molloy. ''Put yourself in that jury box,'' Jacon said. ''What would you do if you were a juror on this case?''

Varner left the courtroom to fruther consider the plea offer and returned and admitted what he did.

''I went into the bedroom and we were fighting and I grabbed a knife and stabbed him,'' Varner said.

Varner will also be sentenced Aug. 12 to five years' post-release supervision.